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There is a paradox at the heart of the US economy. As the federal government imposes sweeping tariffs, signals hostility to multilateral trade and unnerves long-term investors with erratic policymaking, one state has emerged as the most reliable US address for global capital: California, the world’s fourth-largest economy and America’s second-largest exporting state with $188 billion in annual goods exports.

live events sector was valued at over ₹20,800 crore in 2024, reflecting a 15% year-on-year and is expected to double by 2030, according to a report by Deloitte India, released last week. “Events of this scale involve a wide ecosystem: organizers, venues, ticketing platforms, security agencies, local authorities, licensing agencies, partners and multiple vendors for various aspects.

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The international system is entering a phase that increasingly resembles an earlier era of geopolitics—one defined less by shared rules and more by competing spheres of influence. Signals emerging from Washington’s strategic thinking, particularly during the presidency of Donald Trump, point to a worldview in which power, leverage and bilateral bargaining take precedence over the norms and institutions that have guided global governance for decades.With the next Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) approaching, the future of multilateralism is in the spotlight.

New Delhi: As the West Asia conflict drives crude prices above $100 a barrel, India has begun a calibrated pass-through of the shock—raising prices of select fuels while holding the line on retail petrol and diesel.State-run oil marketing companies (OMCs) have raised industrial diesel prices by around ₹22 per litre and premium petrol by about ₹2 per litre, according to industry sources. However, the prices of regular transport fuels and premium diesel have been kept unchanged.In Delhi, the price of premium petrol has been increased from ₹99.89 per litre to ₹101.89, and the price of industrial diesel, which is procured in bulk, has been increased to ₹109.59 per litre.Earlier this month, prices of domestic cooking gas were raised by about ₹60 and commercial LPG by about ₹115.Addressing the media on the developments in West Asia, Sujata Sharma, joint secretary in the ministry of petroleum and natural gas (MoPNG), said there has been no increase in prices of regular petrol and the hike is limited to premium variants, which account for just 3-4% of total demand.

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cost of living, with new data showing more are taking on debt as financial pain bleeds out into broader sections of the economy.It comes as the so-called “K-shape” economy continues to underscore a widening wealth divide between Canada’s highest and lowest income groups, with Equifax reporting debt among Canadians with higher credit scores is rising.“There’s more of a divergence happening and a few of the higher income or low-risk people are kind of switching almost on that ‘K’,” says Rebecca Oakes, vice-president of analytics at Equifax Canada.“Everything that’s happening right now is just going to add pressure to an already difficult situation where we did have diversions in financial health.”Total Canadian consumer debt in the fourth quarter, or final three months of 2025, increased 3.13 per cent from a year earlier to $2.65 trillion, and non-mortgage debt increased by 4.5 per cent.Those with higher credit scores of between 751 and 880 out of the scale to 900 saw their non-mortgage debt rise by 6.1 per cent, while lower credit scores of 320 to 580 remained mostly the same, the report showed.“It doesn’t really matter what your credit score is. What matters is how much income you have relative to your expenses.

Every financial crisis has a moment, usually identified only in retrospect, when an obscure product intended to mitigate risk spreads through what author Rick Bookstaber called “tightly coupled” interconnections to cause widespread damage. The first sign is lots of hard-to-understand stories that seem unrelated, except that they all involve a single sector.Think of all the stories in 2006 and early 2007 about subprime mortgages, underwriting fraud and various other technical-sounding events that seemed far removed from the real US economy and retail investors—until they weren’t.

In the last few years, conversations on artificial intelligence (AI) have made their way from a few company boardrooms and R&D divisions to almost every company’s strategic vision and every investor’s daily life. There is hardly any seminar or conference—be it on healthcare, travel, consumer experience, legal affairs or economics—that doesn’t discuss the AI-led revolution. It is time to assess its impact on India, the world’s fastest-growing major economy.

after the US and Israel attacked Iran on 28 February. While several global economies, from the US to China, have already passed on higher costs to consumers, India has kept prices stable. With crude prices surging, oil marketing companies (OMCs) are taking a big hit.

India joined several developing countries to advocate for a global framework to lower cross-border remittance costs ahead of the World Trade Organisation's 14th ministerial conference (MC14), marking a focus on development-linked financial issues in trade.The proposal, supported by Morocco, Pakistan and the African Group, addresses remittance fees, which remain above the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals target of under 3% by 2030. On several routes, costs still range between 5% and 6%, significantly reducing the amount that ultimately reaches recipient households.

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New Delhi: India has joined a group of developing economies in pushing for a global framework to reduce the cost of cross-border remittances, positioning the issue as a key development priority ahead of the 14th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization scheduled in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon, later this month.The conference will take place during 26-29 March 2026.In a revised draft ministerial declaration circulated on 17 March, India, along with Morocco, Pakistan and the African Group, called for coordinated global action to bring down remittance transaction costs, which remain significantly above the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal target of less than 3% by 2030.India is world’s largest recipient of remittances, with inflows estimated at around $135.4 billion in FY25, according to an India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) report. This marks a steady rise from about $129 billion in 2024 and reflects a strong increase over the past decade.

Stephen Miran has dissented in favor of easier policy at every meeting since joining the board last September. Before that, he served as a top economic adviser to Trump.Christopher Waller, who also dissented at the most recent gathering in January, is seen as a candidate to dissent again after February’s unexpected drop in payrolls reinforced his argument that a weak labor market is near a tipping point.Michelle Bowman cited the labor-market report as evidence the economy “could use some support from our policy rate” in a television interview two weeks ago.

The podcast market revenue is estimated to grow from $969 million in 2024 to $4.5 billion by 2030, according to a Deloitte report released on Tuesday, marking India’s move from a niche audio category to a video-first podcast powerhouse.As far as specific genres go, following 2023 and 2024, podcast consumption has rebounded, with renewed interest in favour of select genres, Deloitte’s media and entertainment predictions report showed. The report cites a 2024 consumer study that found 12% of Indians actively engaged with podcasts.“The trend of video podcasts has evolved in the past six months or so, and there is now traction for two-hour plus conversations versus 15-20 minute content pieces earlier.

As the U.S. and China move from a battle over economic principles to managing the status quo, who is winning? Write to me at [email protected].

Toyota’s factory in Woodstock, Ontario, will soon deploy Digit, a humanoid robot from Agility Robotics, on its production floor. These bipedal machines will unload auto parts from warehouse tuggers and onto the production line—work that until now was performed by humans. Toyota chose humanoid robots because its factories are designed for people.

We have been here before. In the 1970s, US President Gerald Ford urged Americans to combat escalating energy costs in response to the Arab-Israeli war. His Whip Inflation Now (Win) initiative encouraged people to grow vegetables in their yards, car pool and use cold water in the laundry.

NEW DELHI: The civil aviation ministry proposes to offer as much as ₹1,800 crore as incentives to manufacture drones in India, increase adoption across defence and civilian sectors and reduce reliance on component imports from China.The tentatively titled Mission Drone Shakti is expected to set aside ₹1,600 crore-1,800 crore over five years to fund and support research and development and local manufacturing of components including critical parts and incentivize drone sales and adoption, an official aware of the discussions said.The plan is to introduce the scheme in FY27, targeting private Indian companies. The details are being finalized and after the finance ministry’s approval, it will be presented for the consideration of the Cabinet.The proposed Mission Drone Shakti mirrors India’s production-linked incentive schemes across 14 sectors such as electronics, textiles, pharmaceuticals and automobiles, which had a cumulative outlay of ₹1.97 trillion.

Mint’s analysis of historical data.Nomura recently projected that Indian equities could end the year in the red if crude oil prices remain above $100 per barrel, driven by disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz. Analysts estimate that every $10 increase in crude prices could widen the deficit by roughly $20 billion, or about 0.5% of GDP.The brokerage also expects a potential 10-15% downside to FY27 earnings estimates for the Nifty 50 if elevated oil prices persist.

trade deficit of nearly $100 billion with China. Local production funded by FDI could substitute a part of these imports.Second, net FDI inflows have fallen significantly in recent years, making new sources of capital increasingly valuable.Third, the Israel–Iran war has once again exposed India’s energy vulnerabilities.